Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, and the Tea Party Saga

That Sarah Palin will be speaking at what’s being billed as the first “National Tea Party Convention” makes complete sense. A popular movement that is still trying to figure out exactly what it is will be addressed by a popular woman still trying to figure out exactly what she is.

For now, this is OK. Come to think of it, this confusion or vagueness concerning ideology and identity amongst grassroots conservatives is much better than OK — it’s a necessary and encouraging journey.

As the Left and liberal media tries to portray outspoken Americans fed up with government spending as some sort of wacky fringe, the much-maligned “tea baggers” actually represent the first sign of sanity on the mainstream Right in some time. Perhaps it took the extreme spending example of President Obama’s Democratic Party to induce fear in so many about America’s future, but it is also significant that the tea partiers don’t seem to find any worthwhile value in the recent Republican past. In fact, Republican politicians who supported TARP or stimulus spending remain primary targets of the tea party set, and the big-government, big-spending, warmongering of the George W. Bush years seems to have become a distant, often embarrassing memory. Reported ABC News this month, “So-called ‘tea party patriots’ are members of a political movement sweeping America whose core beliefs center around fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets.”

“Fiscal responsibility?” “Constitutionally limited government?” “Free markets?” Isn’t this just long established, stock Republican language? It is. The difference is, unlike grassroots Republicans of the past 30 years, the mostly conservative and independent folks who make up the tea party movement are beginning to realize that the so-called party of “limited government” has not delivered.

But who might deliver? Generally not comfortable with the same old Republican establishment types, Palin is perceived as someone outside the Beltway, who is held at arm’s length by GOP elites and who is abused mercilessly by the mainstream media — just like the tea partiers. Given the dynamics in play, no one should be surprised that the tea party movement has embraced Palin. But it could be that Palin’s emergence as a tea party favorite is more indicative of a thirst for leadership than a thirst for Palin.

If the ideologically incoherent Palin is embraced simply because she is perceived as anti-establishment, so is the more politically sound Rand Paul. Thanks in no small part to the tea partiers, Paul has a good shot of becoming a US Senator in 2010, or as PoliticalLore.com reports:

“As rumors are circulating as to which politician may be able to lead the Tea Party movement into Washington D.C. many are talking but very few are working as hard as Kentucky US Senate candidate Rand Paul… While his Republican primary opponent (Trey Grayson) enjoys the support of the GOP establishment, namely Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, it does not seem to be translating into votes. It will be interesting to see how extensively the RNC and the GOP establishment is willing spend resources on a campaign that is already looking desperate for Grayson. And if Grayson fails, will McConnell ever back Rand Paul?”

It’s a good question, especially considering that men like Mitch McConnell are part of that old Republican guard that grassroots conservatives used to dutifully obey. Not anymore. As the son of popular libertarian maverick Ron Paul–the presidential candidate most troublesome to the RNC in 2008 — Ron’s son Rand might become the next US Senator from Kentucky precisely because he is perceived as an antagonist of the establishment, not merely despite it. Notes PoliticalLore.com “While names such as Sarah Palin and Gary Johnson are thrown around as the potential leaders of the Tea Party movement, it is Rand Paul that is on the ground raising real dollars that look as though they will soon translate into real votes.”

I’m not a big fan of Sarah Palin precisely because I don’t know what she stands for and am not sure she does either. Regardless, I do recognize a certain value in her popularity and in many ways Palin is perfect, at least symbolically, for this moment in the tea party movement.

But the tea partiers cannot simply stop with Palin. They have to keep evolving. Unlike Palin, I’m a fan of Rand Paul precisely because I have a confident grasp of what he stands for, much of it to do with his father. While Rand is his own man, it is still safe to say that the Paul political lineage is based on tangible conservative principle and not mere personality. Such serious conservative principle can be, and eventually must be, the guiding force for any tea parties worth having. And any future political force based on a genuine desire for limited government coupled with an unrelenting distaste for both the Republican and Democratic establishments could finally be the popular movement serious conservatives have been waiting for.

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68 Responses to Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, and the Tea Party Saga

Sarah Palin’s problem is that she is easy pickings for the Israel uber alles crowd in both the congress and media. She just doesn’t have the intellect to grasp the connection between our unquestioned support of Israel and the process of Islamic radicalization that this support nurtures.

My problem with Palin is that she is basically a neoconservative and her ideas are indistinguishable from Bush’s. Anyone who wears a lapel pin of the Israeli flag and who flies the Israeli flag in her office will never get my vote. I’m not anti-Israel, I just don’t like the idea of having to suck up to some foreign power in order to get elected. We need leaders who want to do what’s best for these U.S. of A., not be at the beck and call of PAC’s who put the interests of foreign countries or special interests in front of middle class Americans.

The ONLY representative of the Tea Party and true Conservative in the Kentucky US Senate race is Bill Johnson. His popularity is growing as he walks the state, meeting the people and discussing his views for the future of this country. Go to kentuckybill.com and you be the judge. Check his calendar and see when he’ll be in your area.

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. – Ronald Reagan 1975

Why are so many so called Republicans really against conservatism? Because they are closet liberals! Ronald Reagan was a great libertarian. Notice how he conquered USSR without a money draining endless occupation, unlike the approach to the Middle East today. Grayson is a neo-con, a fake republican that is actually for bigger government and more spending, just like Obama and the liberals, that’s why they have such a disdain for real conservatives like Paul, he calls out their falseness.

Well well well…..As Pat Buchanan said, “Sarah Palin is no NEOCON”, and anyone who has the guts to meet and even join The Alaska Independence Party is what I call a true Anti-Establishment candidate. You can believe what you want to about Sarah, but she is no dummy and she is helping all those that she will need to win in 2012. Palin realizes that she cannot be labeled an extreme right winger if she wants to win the GOP nomination. She has to run as a solid conservative with a libertarian twist – See Ronald Reagan. Even though she is closer to Goldwater and Reagan than any other candidate we have had that has had a “REAL” chance to win. Palin is an American by heart and by the culture she grew up in. She has probably killed more game than all of congress put together and I have no doubt is a better shot than all of them.

Palin’s Scores on the following
Gun Rights A+
Pro Life A+
Strong Military A+
Stopping Illegal Immigration A+
Stopping NAFTA, GATT etc A+
Liberty – Against National ID, Against the Fed A+
Military interventionism B
NOT a member of the Council on Foreign Relations A+
Against the Bailouts A+
Against TARP – broke with McCain A+

Is Sarah Palin perfect ?- hell no, but she is one of the best possible Presidents we could have for the USA and the people of the USA.

John, I said Sarah Palin is a “SMALL L” Libertarian do you know what that means? That means she leans to the Libertarian side on most economic issues and some Liberty issues like being against the Real ID. By all means Sarah is a conservative when it comes to social issues and that’s one of her strong points. NO hard core Libertarian will ever be President on the social issue side – not gonna happen. Ron Paul was probably as Big L Libertarian as you will ever get close to winning the POTUS. While I think Palin has sympathy for those that want to legalize Marijuana and internet gambling, there is no way she will ever endorse such issues in a public way, on the other hand, I do think if she was President she would probably ease up on medical marijuana users, sellers etc. and could probably care less about internet gaming.

Dave, Rand Paul is great!, so is Ron Paul, but I am not so sure just because someone attended DUKE University that makes them brilliant. Actually all that Liberal education is a joke, mind numbing crap. How ultimately ignorant of a statement to make that someone educated in a elite school can run the federal government better than someone who has real life education or maybe ran a corporation, or even a small business. See Obama who never even held a job!

RMS you have got to be kidding – Sarah Palin and image? Are you just saying that because she looks decent? Sarah Palin is a gun toting, animal skinning middle class everyday American. I don’t think I ever seen Palin try to be something she is not. Sarah Palin has Big Kahunas to go out there in a skirt and high heels – the short haired women-libs can hardly keep from blowing a fuse.

No Palin is as real as they get – While all you perfectionists out there are looking for the perfect pure candidate that we will NEVER have, you have been throwing the United States under the bus every four years by allowing the likes of Bush and Bush and Clinton and Obama to win. What the Tea Party people can’t understand is they have a great opportunity to be the difference this time – they can rule the roost and alter the GOP to push the nominee they want Palin or whoever. And by the way for all those Palin Haters, I remember the same Reagan haters saying he would start WWIII etc. Palin is not an interventionist, she is more of the type that likes to come from a position of strength. Unlike Romney, Huckabee, and all the rest of the NeoCons that would use a tactical nuke as a preemptive strike, Palin would not.

After seeing some of Rand Paul’s speeches, and hearing his crowds react, he is probably one of the best candidates I’ve seen for quite a while. Rand was a key figure in starting the TEA party movement before it had a name. He is probably one of the people you can trust the most within this movement as he was there before Fox started working to jump on board. Plus he started and runs his own successful business and his family relies on income from that business in order to live (unlike his opponents.) We need to send more entrepreneurs like Rand to Washington.

Ok, most of you are either ignorant, stupid, or just left wing trolls. I live in Alaska, a few miles from Sarah and Todd. Everything you hear in the media is nonsense. I don’t agree with her stance on the war, but she is an honest, decent, HONEST, did I say honest? educated person. She is attacked by media scum because she isn’t blindly loyal to one party or the other. So,…. piss off. If you want to see white trash, look in DC,(or the mirror)

I must have hit a nerve.with my January 19th missive. I came home to check my information and it was trashed with funny obsceneties.. It is nice to know that my words can still incite the scorn of hell…..I guess I haven’t lost my touch.. Thank God for Sarah Pelin and Thank God for the Tea Parties… Every day November comes one day closer….Obama may be the first American president succesfully impeached…if he doesn’t surrender us to the Chinese first. with Aid and comfort to the enemy…….. ….. Have a nice day, Moishe Pippek